When National Housing News Meets Your Market
Consumers are forming opinions about today's housing market long before they sit down with an agent. This month's Zebra Report explores how national housing headlines influence buyer and seller expectations and how you can redirect those conversations with the local context clients need to make informed decisions.
There's a conversation that more of you are facing when you meet with new clients. It looks something like this: One client is convinced buyers now hold all the cards. Another believes prices are about to fall because inventory is coming back. Both of these potential clients arrived at those conclusions after reading national housing headlines, not local market data.
It's easy to find national reports and nightly news showing sellers outnumbering buyers, inventories rising, and buyers gaining leverage. The challenge isn't whether those headlines are right or wrong – it's that your potential clients often assume that the national story is happening right in their own neighborhood and at their price range. They're worried that it's going to affect their own upcoming transaction.
This is where national news isn't enough. Clients can access national housing news instantly, but they can't compare those conditions against their local market like you can. They need a market interpreter who can translate national trends into local reality.
The National Headline: Buyers Have More Leverage
Last week it was Redfin reporting on rising inventory in major markets across the country. This week it's a buyer convinced that they can negotiate any deal they want because they read that headline.
Of course, a buyer in your market isn't competing against conditions everywhere. They're competing against buyers shopping the same neighborhoods, school districts, and price range. In one market, that may mean multiple offers and limited inventory. In another, it may mean longer days on market and more negotiating opportunities.
So, when your client says, "Buyers can get anything they want now," your response should be more along the lines of, "Let's look at what buyers are actually getting in our market."
By moving the discussion from headlines to local facts, you shift the conversation to information your clients can't get on their own. Instead of debating whether buyers have leverage nationally, show them local inventory levels, days on market, price trends, and recent sales activity. Whether the national story supports their position or not, you're helping them make decisions based on local conditions instead of assumptions.
National headlines aren't the only thing your clients read.
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The National Headline: Inventory Is Returning
Many sellers are hearing the same message in the news, inventory is coming back, but what they often hear is, "Wow, there must be a lot of homes for sale now." In some markets that's true. Austin, TX is frequently cited as an example where inventory has climbed above 12,000 listings, driven by a response to pandemic-era demand. (Source: ATX Things)
But unless your seller is in Austin, that's not where they are competing.
When a seller says, "Inventory is up. I've been reading about it everywhere," and starts quoting national inventory stories, bring the conversation back to local competition. How many comparable homes are currently on the market? How quickly are they selling? How many new listings are entering the market each week? Are new listings arriving faster than buyers are absorbing them?
National inventory may explain what's happening somewhere. Give your client the local facts that determine what happens to their home.
The National Headline: Housing Is Cooling
When some sellers see a headline about a cooling housing market they immediately jump to the conclusion: "Prices must be headed down."
Not so fast. A cooling market and a housing shortage can exist at the same time.
The challenge in many markets isn't a lack of people who want to buy or who need a home. It's a lack of people who can afford to buy.
Rising prices and higher mortgage rates have pushed monthly payments beyond what many households can afford. Some buyers who would have qualified a few years ago no longer can.
That's why the phrase cooling market can be misleading. Demand and need for housing hasn't disappeared - affordability has narrowed the pool of buyers who can participate. (NAR Housing Affordability Index)
If your sellers are anxious about entering the market because it is "cooling down," then your conversation becomes practical: "Buyers are still active. The challenge is that affordability has reduced the number of buyers who can realistically purchase in your price range. That means proper pricing, presentation, and marketing matter more than they did when demand was higher."
You Are the Expert
National housing news still serves a useful purpose by providing context for what is happening in markets across the country. The challenge is that buyers and sellers don't make national decisions, they make local ones – and often their market looks very different from the headlines.
That's why your role matters - clients bring the headlines, you bring the context. You know which statistics matter locally, which trends are affecting your market, and which assumptions don't apply.
When a client arrives quoting a national statistic, resist the temptation to immediately agree or disagree. Instead, use that headline to turn the discussion to local inventory, local affordability, local competition, and local demand.
The next time a buyer or seller arrives with a national statistic, don't argue with it. Pull up your local numbers and show them what that headline looks like in their market. That's the conversation they're actually hiring you to have.
By Denise Lones CSP, CMP, M.I.R.M.
The founding partner of The Lones Group, Denise Lones has over three decades of experience in the real estate industry. With agent/broker coaching, expertise in branding, lead generation, strategic marketing, business analysis, new home project planning, product development and more, Denise is nationally recognized as the source for all things real estate. With a passion for improvement, Denise has helped thousands of real estate agents, brokers, and managers build their business to unprecedented levels of success, while helping them maintain balance and quality of life.